Baking Lesson
by TheHonourableRulerOfZubidar
Summary: Buffy and Angel take another look at their relationship. post s7. please r and r


**a/n: this is just an idea that I had while I was "studying". best time to come up with stuff for fan fic! I just had to get it out of my system as it was bugging me. It's a one shot.**

**Setting: this is set post s7 buffy. AI has been set up in LA and they have had adventures and what not, but as I am still trying to hunt down the DVDs of Angel: the series, I have no idea what is happening there right now. So please don't be pissed off at me for anything that contradicts Angel stuff.**

**Review and tell me what you think!! I'll give you a cookie ;) I hope you enjoy it**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing here. Zip. Zit. Zero. Nada. okay, I'll stop**

**BANG! "No!!!!!!!!" comes the voice of Dawn screaming at the top of her lungs. "Dawnie," says Willow calmly, "It's okay. It's with soufflés that you can't slam doors. These are only cookies." Dawn straightens herself and looks around at Willow and the two new additions to the room, Buffy and Angel, who were all starring at her.**

"**Oh… I knew that. I was just… worried about the draft! Does anyone else feel chilly?" She wraps her arms around her chest as if trying to warm herself up. She gives a "Brrrr" for added effect, but backs out of the room slowly as her older sister tries to stifle a laugh.**

**Willow throws Buffy a "why-the-hell-did-you-have-to-do-that?" look, then goes rushing after Dawn. Buffy, looking slightly disinterested, walks over to the oven. She looks through the glass door. "They don't look like they'll take much longer; I'm dying for my sugar rush!" She begins to walk out of the kitchen after Dawn and Willow, but Angel catches her arm and spins her back around to face him. He has an intense look on his face that nearly makes Buffy gasp.**

"**Would you stop changing the subject?" Buffy just puts on her innocent face. "What are you talking about?" she answers.**

"**I have asked you this five times this week, and every single time you walk away or change the subject or cut me off." As he says this, he lists them off on his fingers. He then throws his hands in the air in dismay. "What is the deal with you lately?"**

**Buffy stands and does nothing for what seems like a lifetime as Angel patiently waits for an answer. She mumbles something that could have contained the word nothing, but then again, who could be sure. She turns and once again tries to walk away. Angel grabs Buffy by both shoulders and bends down until he is at eye level with her. He expects her to struggle so he is surprised when she doesn't. She's too preoccupied with noticing how close her face is to Angel's. She can feel his sweet-smelling, unessential breath brushing against her face. She blinks slowly, trying to gather herself.**

"**You have been here for three months." Angel says, "You, Dawn, Willow, Xander and Giles have been in this house for three months now. To the day." Buffy has a flashback to the day that she and a busload of others had landed up to Angel in L.A. looking for a place to stay. He was more that happy to oblige, finding then a house near enough to his own and paying for it with money that no one knew he had. Since then, slayer after slayer had drifted off to different corners of the earth with their new found watchers. The only ones still left were the original Scoobies, plus Dawn of course. She snaps out of her little fit of nostalgia when Angel continues.**

"**Three months and all the time you have talked about getting out of here, but I don't think that the others want to. I don't think that you want to." Buffy opens her mouth to protest but closes it when she actually thinks about it. Maybe they are happy here. Dawn has upgraded from calling it the glorified shed to home, Willow has gotten in touch with a wica group that met nearby, Xander is looking into a managerial position in a building contractor and Giles has turned the attic into the unofficial watchers headquarters while he was getting everything in order. Buffy herself, well, she isn't sure what she wants. All that she knows is that she wants to… not be standing still.**

"**I will ask you this one more time and if you dodge it again, I will take that as a no. Do you or do you not want to join Angel Investigations full time?"**

**Buffy really has to struggle to form the words to ask the question that has been buzzing around in her head since the first time he asked he. "But.. But why? Why me? Why now? Just… why in general." At this, Angel laughs and unconsciously leans in a bit closer. "Do you really need to ask?" Buffy gulps and nods.**

"**Well… We could really use a slayer on our team"**

"**But you could have asked any of the new slayers. They're searching for a place in the world and would have jumped at the chance. Besides, it doesn't look like you guys need much help."**

"**But you've got the experience. And… and…" Buffy sighs. She hates seeing Angel like this, lost for words. It just didn't suit him at all. She looks down at her hands for a second, trying to distract herself from the piece of hair that was dangling perfectly over his forehead. From the familiar, safe feeling of having his hands gripping her. From the feelings that she had felt growing inside her since she arrived. When she looked back up again, Angel's face was a lot closer that she remembered.**

"**Buffy. I have waited and I have watched you since you came here." As he says this, he seems to be slightly out of breath. "You know how I feel about you, if you don't then you're a deaf, blind person with amnesia." He chuckles slightly as he says this. "So in case you tick these boxes, I will say it again. I. Love. You."**

**Buffy opens her mouth as if she is about to say something, but she doesn't. Angel just looks so happy, so so happy. And he is. He had not said that to Buffy since the night he came to see her in Sunnydale, and even then he hadn't said it outright. In the time that Buffy had been in L.A., this feeling had grown and grown. It was just so good to say it. "I love you, Buffy Anne Summers, more than anything in the whole wide world. I know that you're not ready for it just yet but I've noticed that you seem to be attracting way too much of the opposite sex. I don't want anymore competition. So, the main reason that I want you to join Angel Investigations is so that I can keep you near me."**

"**I.. I don't know what to say." Usually, Buffy would have cracked one of her famous bad jokes, but this just didn't seem like the right time.**

"**Just say yes."**

**Buffy looked down at her hands, laying motionlessly at her side. Why had she said that she hadn't been ready. At the time, she had feelings for Spike. She had thought that they had been love, but looking back she isn't so sure. She did care for him, but it wasn't love. But no matter how much she cared for him, he was gone. Spike was gone. She had grieved for him and he would always hold a place in her heart, but he was dead.**

**At the time, she had been the one, the only slayer. Well, apart from Faith. But the point it that she had so much responsibility on her shoulders. She was the one who had to save the world and be back in time to make sure Dawn got to bed. She was. But not anymore. Now, there were others. If she wanted to, she could just disappear into the background an hardly be missed. She could live a someway normal life, start up relationships.**

**There are other reasons why she shouldn't act on the instinct that was trying to get the better of her. She pushes them all into the back of her mind and looks up again, this time with more confidence.**

"**You remember the talk we had in Sunnydale?"**

"**Of course."**

"**Well…" Before she has a chance to continue the oven beeps, signalling that its contents are cooked. Buffy looks over at it for a bit, thinking about the irony of it all. "Well, I think I'm cookies." She gives a coy little smile, grabs him by the luscious curls on the back of his head and brings him the miniscule distance between them until their lips meet. They skip the hesitant first kisses because they have already done all that before.**

**They kiss long and they kiss hard until Dawn comes running into the room. She looks embarrassed when she sees them, but forgets about them when she remembers why she came in.**

"**Yes!!! Cookies are done!!!! WILLOW!! I'M TAKING OUT THE COOKIES!!!"**

"**Jeez Dawnie, I'm not in China!"**

"**Ummm… Willow? I think that the cookies have been done for a while."**

"**What?" Willow says as she comes into the kitchen just in time to see Dawn deposit the burnt biscuits on the table. "Oh."**

**Angel takes this opportunity to whisper in Buffy's ear. "You know, I think I'll take that as a yes." Buffy just smiles, closing her eyes and thinking that the only thing that could make this moment any better, is if the cookies were edible.**


End file.
